The best songs can’t always be recreated. Singer/songwriter Ryann Ross joins Atwood Magazine to discuss ‘On the Marsh,’ lightning-in-a-bottle recordings, heartbreak, and why following your instincts is always worth it.

Stream: ‘On The Marsh’ – Ryann Ross

Have you ever watched a movie, looked at a painting, or listened to a piece of music that completely pulled you out of the moment and transported you somewhere else?

The best art does exactly that. It takes you from one emotional state to another. It shifts your perspective, expands your world, even if only for a few minutes, and creates something you can return to again and again.

More often than not, that feeling comes from experiencing something truly original. Something unlike anything you’ve heard or seen before. It stops you in your tracks because it feels undeniably authentic. It takes an artist willing to trust their instincts, tune out the outside noise, and create from a place that is entirely their own. Those are the works that stay with and transport us.

On the Marsh - Ryann Ross — On the Marsh – Ryann Ross

Ryann Ross accomplishes exactly that with her debut EP, On The Marsh. From the moment you press play on the opening track, “Time the Interlude,” Ross’s buttery smooth vocals immediately pull you into her world. Even the song’s title hints that this project won’t follow convention. While “interlude” is typically reserved for the middle of an album, Ross intentionally opens with it.

“You’re coming in halfway into my life in a way. This is halfway through my 20s, so it’s the start of a different chapter of my life. That’s kind of why I did it,” she explains.

It’s a thoughtful introduction to a project that feels both deeply personal and quietly transportive.

We spoke with Ryann Ross about the creation of On The Marsh, the moments that nearly made her quit music, and the power of following her instincts.

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:: stream/purchase On the Marsh here ::

:: connect with Ryann Ross here ::

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A CONVERSATION WITH RYANN ROSS

Atwood Magazine: Hi, thanks so much for taking the time, I'm so excited to talk to you. Where are you based at the moment?

Ryann Ross: I’m in LA right now, but I’m going back to New York in a week or so. I’m from New Jersey, originally.

Nice, I'm from Pittsburgh.

Ryann Ross: Oh, sick. East Coast.

Yes! I love this EP. Let’s dive in. “Time the Interlude,” I love that it's called “Interlude” but it's the first track. It really sets the tone perfectly. Tell me about this one and that choice.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, I don’t know, I just thought it would be funny to call it “The Interlude” and put it as the first song. If you want to make it deep, it’s like, oh, you’re coming in halfway into my life in a way, this is halfway through my 20s. So it’s the start of a different chapter of my life. That’s kind of why I did it. But also it was kind of silly.

No, that's really cool. I love that.

Ryann Ross: Yeah. I recorded that with Richard (Pichura). We tried to re-track it, but nothing felt as right as the original. We recorded it on this awful microphone. If you listen, there are firetrucks in the background. The lyrics were all freestyled. I just couldn’t do it again in the same way.

I’ve talked to a few artists where it's those lightning-in-a-bottle moments, they're like, “I couldn't recreate this if I tried.” I think that makes the best stuff, honestly.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, it’s really hard to record a song twice. I try not to, honestly, I try to get all the lyrics in on the demo, because once you have that, it’s there. There are songs I’ve been able to redo, but it’s so frustrating. I have to listen to my tone on the original a lot because my voice changes. I’m like, “Oh no, how did I sing that?”

Is it the feeling you have when you're first writing it, singing it that way, that you want to hold onto?

Ryann Ross: Yeah. And I’ll be working on other songs too, which all have their own little energies. So it’s hard to go back and be like, “Oh, I don’t even know what I was feeling, or what part of my throat I was using.” I don’t know, it’s hard.

“Time the Interlude” cannot be done by anyone ever again, maybe not even you.

Ryann Ross: No, actually!

Amazing. Okay, “Sleep Talk,” this one is nuts. It's cool to hear you talk about your voice and finding where you sing, because your voice really is an instrument. The runs in this song are beautiful. I also love when a song exudes the feeling of what you're singing about, and I think the music and lyrics here match so perfectly. Tell me about this one.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, this was definitely the start of finding my world with Levi Roth, my producer for most of this record. We were sitting in my living room, it was a time when I wasn’t writing. I just didn’t trust myself anymore. He was like, “You know you can do whatever you want.” And I was like, “I guess that is true.” He’s the one who screamed the high part. After that, I was like, “Oh, I guess I really could do whatever I want.” It kind of shaped this record a lot.

“Sleep Talk” is so chaotic and all over the place in a way, it’s like when you date someone and you just know something’s in their phone, or something’s wrong about the relationship, and it’s keeping you up at night with anxiety. Especially in the bridge, to me that part is like falling down the stairs.

Yes, the song feels like the line you sing, “I fear I'm in love.”

Ryann Ross: [laughs]

“Irish Exit,” first of all, what a cool song title. I think lyrically this one is my favorite. The songwriting is so visceral.

Ryann Ross: Visually, I agree, it’s my favorite, lyrically, as well.

Tell me about writing this one.

Ryann Ross: This one was actually going to be for Levi’s record originally, which he’s still working on. It was about my experience with a partner. I dated this person for five long years, and I needed to get a lot off my chest. I try not to talk about them too much, but this was my one song to put all the anger into. I feel like I kept it pretty nice still, I could have gotten a lot worse. I needed to say all of it so I could move on mentally. Levi is also one of the most incredible songwriters. He pushes me way more than most when it comes to writing, which I appreciate. He’s honestly a poet. It was really fun writing that one, and it’s really fun singing it too.

A lot of it does feel like poetry, the line about diamonds crying down the side of your face. I love the “sauna” and “prima donna” part.

Ryann Ross: Yeah. Sometimes it’s really hard to balance poetry with lyrics, what you’re actually trying to say can get lost because you’re trying to sound poetic. There’s a fine line.

I feel like you've cracked it, especially with that one.

Ryann Ross: Thank you. Sometimes I’m still like, “Oh, that was too much.”

Definitely not. Let’s talk about “On the Marsh.” I want to ask about the production of this one, and the EP as a whole. The production is so full and warm, and clearly thought through and intricate. This one has so many subtle changes throughout that hold your interest, and I love how full everything feels while still leaving so much room for your voice.

Ryann Ross: I’m not a fan of typical structure. I don’t think a song always needs it. With this one, there were so many moods I wanted to reach, and to me it made sense to transition between them throughout the song.

With a lot of the songs on this record, we wanted it stripped back to allow for the vocals to be at the forefront, but I really wanted a lot of ugly textures too. We started with just guitar and then I pushed for the organ. Levi wasn’t sure about the organ. He fought me on it, but at the end of the day I wasn’t really asking. (We both laugh) The song is so sad and dark, I knew it needed an organ.

That actually is such a testament, it's so clear you have strong gut instincts, even with your singing. I feel like a lot of people wouldn't trust their gut and would just go, “Okay, no organ.” The fact that you stick to it and say, “No, I'm hearing this, we're doing it,” that's amazing.

Ryann Ross: It’s so funny, because he’s the one who taught me to be like that.

That's what it sounds like, yeah, he said you can do whatever you want.

Ryann Ross: We’re like siblings, honestly. It’s funny, so we fight a lot, but he still listens to me. There’s a lot of producers who will be like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t think that,” and won’t do it. Whereas everyone I work with now, Julian Dobson, Levi Roth and Richard Pichura; we all have respect for each other, which is really nice. They don’t disregard my ideas.

So yeah, the main part of that song is just, I really wanted it to be as ugly as it can be, because I love what an ugly tone can do at times.

Let’s talk about “Blubird.” To me, it's very sad; I could be interpreting it incorrectly, but to me it's that feeling everyone gets when you go home when you're a little bit older and removed, and you're like, “Wait, everything's different and so am I.” And the line about your parents getting older, it's so sad, but also universal. Tell me about this one.

Ryann Ross: I think a lot of people think it’s just about talking to my younger self, but for me, I’m kind of an only child. I have half siblings who are much older. I was alone a lot of the time, running through my house by myself.

I wrote about feeling really sad in a toxic relationship or just bad things happening in general and having to come back to your childhood bedroom. You go back and there’s a crack on the wall from doing a handstand. That crack has watched me be all these things. It inspired me.

Yeah, for sure.

Ryann Ross: So this one was a sweet one. And then having my nana at the end was really nice and lovely, to get her in the video, because she passed away a month later.

Oh man, I'm so sorry.

Ryann Ross: She was 95, and she wanted to go so bad. All her friends were gone.

I've seen that when they're ready, it's obviously terrible and I'm so sorry, but it's nice when they're ready, and you got to give her this song. She got to be a star!

Ryann Ross: She’s like, “What?”

Was it fun? Did she have a fun day?

Ryann Ross: I did have a fun day. It was fun. I hadn’t been back to Jersey in a really long time, and I didn’t really like it growing up either. I was like, “I want to be a New York kid.” The New York kids hated the Jersey kids. There was a long time where I hated telling people I was from there, but then, growing up and liking yourself is a huge part of it, so now I’m like, who cares? It’s such a freak thing, if you say you’re from Jersey people have a visceral reaction, it’s so funny. So it was nice going back and being appreciative, because it was nice. I had fireflies and trees and an alley in my backyard, I think it’s in the video, and there were a bunch of kids who lived on my block so we’d all play together, and it was really nice.

East Coast! I'll say it again, it's a nice place to grow up.

Ryann Ross: It’s nice. And that’s why everyone was back in the summer.

Yeah, exactly. Okay, “First World Problems,” the closer. Such a great finale. I love when the closing song of an EP feels like it ties things up but also leaves so much open for what's next, and I feel like this song does that. Also the harmonies in this one are so good. Tell me about choosing it as the last track. Also, I feel like the whole tracklist is pretty intentional, it takes me on a nice story.

Ryann Ross: I kind of tried to arrange it in a way where it’s in the timeline of the last five or six years. It’s been so many years, oh, just 19 to 25 essentially.

Big years.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, big years. I was coming out of a five year relationship. I was living in parts of Europe and the UK and then coming home being like, “I can’t live with my family, I have to get a job, oh my God.” And then moving to LA, that was a lot.

“First World Problems” is another one I couldn’t re-track with Richard. That is a mess of a song. Those harmonies, I would never be able to do those again.

They're crazy. They're so good.

Ryann Ross: Thank you! I was really going through it when I wrote this. I almost quit music. I wrote this record two years ago in November, then I went through a breakup the day after I finished writing it. Then I lost my job, they were like, “Yeah, never come back actually.” And I was like, “Oh, this is really awesome.”

When it rains, it pours.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, truly. And so I was like, “I guess I’ll become a therapist or something, what else am I going to do?” And then the fires happened a month or two later, and I just remember being in Joshua Tree and listening to Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal for the first time and being like, “God damn it.” It’s so funny because lyrically this song isn’t even close to my best, but I do love the soundscape of it and I do like the intention, what I’m talking about. I started it there (in Joshua Tree), and then finished it with Richard. I was being really awful to myself, but also I was going through a hard time, so it was like I needed to chill and be like, “It’s okay.” I just remember drinking all the time, and then being so sick in the shower, you know what I mean? You’re like, “Oh, I’m so hungover, I can’t believe I did that.” And you have to sit in the shower and just accept your fate.

Yes, 100%!

Ryann Ross: Yeah, so that’s what that one’s about, and it just kind of ends that chapter of my life.

Thank God you didn’t quit music!

Ryann Ross: It was so funny. A couple weeks after that, in February, I got coffee with Ryan Richter, who used to come into my job at Moon Juice all the time. I was a barista there.

We became friends and he kind of became a mentor. I’d have maybe three or four sessions a year, and anything I would do, I’d show him. He really encouraged me. I sent him really rough demos of “My Thomas” and “Sleep Talk.” And that’s how I met my managers, through him.

Oh, amazing.

Ryann Ross: Yeah, so without Richter, I’d be in school right now probably.

Okay, thank you to Richter! The people who truly follow their gut, I feel like, eventually end up winning. So I'm glad you're doing that.

Ryann Ross: Thank you!

What’s next?

Ryann Ross: I have a show tonight, but it’s more like a house party, to be quite honest.

That's cool, I wish I could go, that sounds awesome.

Ryann Ross: I’m headed to New York, and I’ll probably do shows with my friend Julian. Also, I’m starting the second project soon, so we’ll see what happens. There’s drums now.

Okay, that's big. Whoa, that is a step.

Ryann Ross: I know, it’s a step. I’m starting to feel out what I want to write about. That’s the hardest part. I’m older now. I’m 27. I can talk about boys, but I’m not really dating. You go into a room and people are like, “So who are you seeing?” And I’m like, “I don’t want to talk about that right now.” There are other parts of the human experience you can talk about, you just need to search for it a little bit.

Yeah, absolutely. I would imagine it's also important to know what you want the full thing to be, like the thesis statement, if you will, of what it's going to be.

Ryann Ross: Hopefully it’s good, I don’t know.

It's going to be great! Thank you so much for chatting. I’m so excited to see what comes next for you. We’ll be following along.

Ryann Ross: Thank you so much, nice to meet you!

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